The Steel Guitar Forum

My wife is going to have to miss an important date at our son's school, because she has to be away in Italy for her work on that date. I'm wondering what it would take to be able to broadcast the event live over the internet, so she could watch it from Italy.

I have a laptop (maybe not fast enough or powerful enough), and a cellphone. I think I could get an adaptor to hook the laptop up to the cellphone. I suppose I'd need a camera of some kind, and my wife would also need a laptop and a cellphone (I don't think she would be near a desktop computer at the time).

Is this a ridiculous idea, or is it very workable? Can you tell me what would really be involved in making this work?

Many thanks!
Jim

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www.jimcohen.com

Does she really need to watch it LIVE?

A camcorder seems far more practical, IMO.

It obviously CAN be done, since I've seen webcasts done. Going over a cell phone, I'd imagine the data quality and frequency would be VERY limited.

You'd definitely need some sort of camera to do this, and appropriate software. Cameras aren't that expensive, and I'd assume the software would be reasonable, too.

I've never looked into this -- I imagine it's reasonably complicated, and would be tough to get it done correctly for a one-time shot like this. I'd definitely recommend trying it beforehand (several times) to get any bugs worked out.

I'll ask around and see what I can find out.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons


<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by David Pennybaker on 31 January 2001 at 01:56 PM.]</p></FONT>

Thanks. No, SHE doesn't need to see it live, but it would make a difference to our son if HE knew that she was seeing it live, if you get my drift...

OK, just wanted to see how much of a necessity it was or wasn't. (Parent/Teacher conference came to mind as something that might be more of a necessity).

Do you already connect via cellphone to an ISP somewhere? Do you know what the connection rates (obviously not 56k, I'd think) are?

Another worry I just thought of is what kind of cell phone would she be using in Italy? And what ISP? It'd be far easier to use somebody else's ISP over there, and probably somebody else's cell phone, too. There's still no standard world-wide on cell phones.

The initial response (I've had one) is "no way". But I imagine that truly depends on just how small a picture she wants to see, how many FPS she wants to have, and how much compression she's willing to tolerate.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

Hey, David. I don't have a connection for my cellphone to my laptop yet, and don't know what ISP to use. I don't know anything! I just need someone to tell me how to make this work.
Thanks for your interest in helping out!
Jim

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www.jimcohen.com

I've been told that the BEST upload speeds you'll get from a cell phone is about 19 kb/sec (bits, not bytes).

Others have said more like 4 kb/sec.

I guess it varies depending on where you are.

Here at home, you should be able to just use your ISP, no problem.

The problem I foresee is on the other end. Getting a cell phone and ISP that'll work.

My gut feeling is that you won't be satisified with the quality of whatever you'll be able to broadcast real-time. And the hardware (cell phone modem, etc) isn't cheap, I'd bet.

If it were me, I'd rather spend the money (probably more money) on a digital camcorder and a FireWire card. Take the movie, edit and comress the heck out of it, upload it to the ISP as a movie file, and let your wife watch from Italy that way.

That's not real-time, though. But not bad.

Even Fedexing a video tape to Italy would be problematic, as they use PAL instead of NSTC standards.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

I think I get it now, Dave. I'm S.O.L., right?

Well, thanks for trying anyway!

Is this event going to happen sometime in February?.
If so, maybe one of the local TV stations might be willing to do it for you, just for the promotional value. I'd think at least one would have the capabilities, and there are several benefits for them to do it, since it would happen during their ratings period.
It would promote their webcasting capabilities, community involvment,and give them a good piece for the human interest portion of their news.
As long as there's no charge for admission to the event, the school could also benefit from the coverage.
It's just an idea, but might be worth looking into. I'd contact KYW first, since thier website indicates to me that they could do it. Call their Promotion Manager. What have you got to lose?

Rick

Hi guys -- Seems like Jim SHOULD be able to do this. Don't the porn sites accomplish the same thing??? Sorry, but I've not had any experience with such things. (Wife says I probably don't have the required 'hardware' for the porn places.) --Ev

OK, here's one semi-informative response I got. At least it has some details on what software to use (Windows Media Player encoder) to use and basically how to do it:

The easy way to do this is to run Windows Media Server. System requirements wouldnt matter since your not streaming at a high bitrate or high resolution. So if you wanted to stream at 320x240 @ 768k, then you would need at least a PIII 500mhz. You can also adjust the frame rate as it streams, so a 5-10fps would be ideal when using a 56k bitrate. Clear, but choppy motion, its the only way to do it on dial up (overseas). http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/wm7/Encoder.asp?FinishURL=%2Fdownloads%2Frelease%2Easp%3FReleaseID%3D23775%26redirect%3Dno

Quite easy to set it up using a Webcam. Just dial up, get your IP and email it to the wife, she in turn enters in the IP into Windows Media Player (open location). You can also record on a multiple bit rate, choose a dial up one and a broadband one. Both of which you can broadcast, write to file or both. If she cant see it clearly enough, you can always put the .wmv on a FTP (filesanywhere?) for her to download overnight and watch it locally on her work machine.

If anything, she will be able to listen to the event if she cant see it clearly enough.

PS
Ive done this sort of thing before, broadcasting some friends over, getting drunk and streaming out to several folks on the IRC using only a 280k upstream.




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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

<SMALL>Don't the porn sites accomplish the same thing???</SMALL>

I'm sure they do, and so do others -- I've seen a live event broadcast from Nashville once.

But, I'll be willing to bet that they have at least 56k upload capability (if not higher, like T3).

The real issue is the upload bandwith availability. Doing it from a cell phone connection will certainly limit the resolution and frame-rates available.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

OK, guys! Now we're startin' to get somewhere! Thanks!

Maybe the school would let me run a phone line from the office outside. It would be a looong phone line though and I don't know if that means the signal would deteriorate further, or perhaps get cut off a lot?

Interesting idea about KYW too, thanks!
jc

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www.jimcohen.com

I knew I'd finally remember the software that I used with my old web-cam.

PS -- I don't think the long phone extension cord would be a problem at all. Ideally, if the school has T1 or T3 access to the web, you could even take advantage of that.

This sounds interesting:
http://www.cuseeme.com/software/cuseemeweb.htm

Note the requirements:

PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS
CUseeMe Web Host Site:

A web page or Internet-based application, customized with CUseeMe Web components
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or later version, or Netscape Navigator or Netscape Communicator 4.5.1 or later version
CUseeMe Conference Server (v4.0.2.17 or later) with the CUseeMe Web add-on option
A Java servlet engine running stand-alone or in conjunction with a web (HTTP) server
The CUseeMe Web Admission Center
One or more conferences configured for CUseeMe Web connections on your CUseeMe Conference Server
CUseeMe Web Client:

233 MHz Intel Pentium processor (or equivalent) running Windows 98 / 2000 or Windows NT 4.0
64 MB Random Access Memory (RAM)
56K modem connection with active ISP service
Internet Explorer 5.0 or later, or Netscape Navigator or Netscape Communicator 4.6 or later version
Audio / Video Requirements:

Participants can receive video and send/receive text chat in a CUseeMe Web conference without any special hardware. However, the following hardware is required if a participant wants to send video or send/receive audio:

Digital color video camera or analog color video camera and video capture card
Microphone
Speakers or headphones
16-bit (minimum) full duplex sound card



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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons